Canon PowerShot G11

Shooting Modes (19.00)

The G11 has a very wide selection of shooting modes on offer, including a full manual mode and 20 scene modes. Most of these scene modes are available by setting the mode dial to SCN and using the scrolling control to move through the list, but some (low light and quick shot) have their own spots on the mode dial. Using the scene mode spot on the dial is a bit awkward; you have to scroll through the list with no indication of how far to go to find the mode you want.

For the more seasoned shooter, there are also a good selection of manual modes, including aperture and shutter priority and a full manual modes. Two spots on the mode dial are also reserved for custom modes that can hold a group of settings. This is a very useful feature to have if you move quickly from one shooting situation to another. For instance; if you are shooting at an indoors and outdoors wedding, you could have one custom mode for indoors (with flash turned on, white balance in flash mode, etc) and another for outdoors (flash disabled, white balance to daylight, shutter priority mode, etc). Switching from one to the other is as simple as turning the dial to the C1 or C2 spot.

Auto Mode Features

Focus – We found the auto focus on the G11 to be very quick and responsive; the camera quickly found the focus point in most situations. The G11 uses a single focus point (rather than the multiple focus points of some cameras), but you can move this point and change the size. This means that if you are focusing on something that is off center, you have to move the focus point by pressing the AF frame selector button and using the directional pad the move the focus square. You can also change the size of the focus square; two sizes are available. In low light, it uses an AF assist light in the form of a white LED with a smaller blue patch in the center. This light is rather bright, so it should be used with caution; you could blind people. It can be turned off if required.

Exposure – You get a lot of control over the exposure process of the G11: you can quickly set up to 2 stops of compensation either way with the compensation dial on the top of the camera. Several exposure bracketing features are also available; you can set the camera to take 3 shots at up to +/-2 stops of exposure compensation, as well as focus bracketing which takes 3 images at different focus points.

Metering – The G11 offers the standard set of metering modes: evaluative, center weighted and spot. A face detection mode is also available which uses the detected faces for focus and exposure.

Self-Timer – The G11 offers a lot of options in its self timer feature. As well as the usual simple 10 and 2 second delays, the camera can take a number of photos (from 3 to 10) when it detects a face in the frame. There is also a custom option which allows you to set the delay (up to 30 seconds) and the number of shots that are taken (from 3 to 10). The one thing that is missing is an interval timer, where the camera takes a number of shots at a preset time interval.

Picture Effects (3.00)

A lot of picture effects are on offer, including a wide range of color modes and other effects.

The color accent and color swap modes can also be used when shooting video, and both provide some degree of customization; using the control dial, you can control how precise the color match is for both modes.

Picture Samples
Vivid Neutral Sepia Black & White Positive Lighter Skin Tone Darker Skin Tone Custom Color Accent Color Swap More...

Manual Controls (10.69)

Manual focus is available by pressing the up section of the directional pad, and we found this to be easy to use; you focus with the control wheel, and the camera enlarges the center of the image on the LED screen to check focus.

The G11 offers a lot of control over the white balance settings it uses to take photos; there are 7 presets, two custom settings and a full auto mode. All of these can be fine tuned as required, which is unusual for a point and shoot. Having two custom settings is also unusual, but is very useful if you want to use a custom setting from two locations.

The full manual and aperture priority modes of the G11 give you a good degree of control over the aperture settings of the lens, although the lens has a rather limited aperture range, especially at the telephoto end of the zoom range.

A good degree of control over the shutter speeds of the camera is also available, and the G11 offers a good range of shutter speeds, from 1/4000 down to 15 seconds.

Drive/Burst Mode (6.00)

Two burst modes are available on the G11: continuous shooting and continuous shooting AF. In the latter mode, the camera continuously keeps checking the focus point and adjusting it if required.

Shot to Shot (0.78)

In our tests, we found that the G11 was capable of shooting about 1 frame a second at the highest resolution in the continuous shooting mode. The continuous shooting AF mode is a little slower, at 0.77 frames a second. That’s a little slow, but the camera is at least capable of taking a lot of shots at this speed, as it can write the images out to the memory card as fast as it takes them.